An electronic book (hereafter ebook) is an electronic version of a traditional print book that can be read by using a personal computer, personal digital assistant, dedicated reading device, or any other digital appliance with a presentation means. A presentation means can be for example a viewing screen. An ebook reader is generally a digital appliance on which an ebook may be read. An ebook application is a software program executed on a digital appliance that is used for reading an ebook. Examples are Microsoft Reader (www.microsoft.com/reader/default.asp) and Adobe ebook reader (www.adobe.com/products/ebookreader/main.html).
An ebook application user interface is usually comprised of an application window divided into a text area and a functional area. The text area presents the content of the book, and the functional area provides control over the presentation such as buttons for next and previous page.
Although prophesied by some as a replacement for print books, market penetration of ebooks is still relatively low. One reason for this is that traditional print books offer a superior user experience for most people today.
A different approach is not to replace print books, but rather supplement them with digital versions to create an improved user experience. An example of an opportunity for improved user experience is the usage of ebooks in conjunction with print books is in the realm of education and textbooks. An example is the use of a printed history textbook for reading a chapter on the civil war, but then utilizing the ebook version of the same history book for a search function used to find all the information in the book pertaining to the Gettysburg address.
In many cases, ebooks are presented on a digital appliance differently than in print. An example is a print page of 35 lines, each containing around 12-15 words, which displays approximately 500 words. The contents of such a print page may not fit in well on a PC screen due to screen resolution, or a PDA screen due to screen size. As a result, pages in ebooks are usually re-flowed. Re-flowing a page means displaying the amount of information based on screen size, application window size, and font size. For the above print page, a re-flowed page may display only 300 words, or 27 lines of 10-12 words. In the example above, a 100 page print book becomes a 170 page ebook. It is clear to see that the original print page numbers and the digital version page numbers are different.
In order to read and or study effectively using both a print version and a digital version of a book, a user should be able to adroitly switch context between the two formats. For example, after reading several pages in the ebook, the user should easily be able to see what the relevant print page number is for continued reading on the print book. Unfortunately, existing art displays only ebook pagination, disregarding the page numbers of the original print book.
There is clearly an unmet need for a translation of page numbers in an electronic book so that a user reading a print book and a digital version of the print book may easily switch between reading the print version and the digital version of the book.